Horde(creature)
Horde, Small Small Outsider (Earth, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful) Hit Dice: 3d8+3 (16 hp) Initiative: +5 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 17 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 16 Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+2 Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+4/19-20) Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+4/19-20) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Collective mind, communal reliance, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, telepathy 100 ft. Saves: Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +4 Abilities: Str 17, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17 Skills: Balance +3, Concentration +25, Diplomacy +29, Jump +33, Listen +25, Knowledge (the planes) +25, Search +25, Sense Motive +25, Spot +25, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, +3 on other planes), Tumble +27 Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Elemental Plane of Earth Organization: Solitary, patrol (2-8), or collective (10-1,000) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: See text Alignment: Always lawful evil Advancement: 4 HD (Small) Level Adjustment: — Horde, Medium Medium Outsider (Earth, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful) Hit Dice: 5d8+15 (37 hp) Initiative: +5 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 19 (+1 Dex, +8 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 18 Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+10 Attack: Bite +11 melee (1d8+7/19-20) Full Attack: Bite +11 melee (1d8+7/19-20) Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Collective mind, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, telepathy 100 ft. Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +5 Abilities: Str 21, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17 Skills: Balance +3, Concentration +27, Diplomacy +29, Jump +35, Listen +25, Knowledge (the planes) +25, Search +25, Sense Motive +25, Spot +25, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, +3 on other planes), Tumble +27 Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Elemental Plane of Earth Organization: Solitary, patrol (2-8), or collective (10-1,000) Challenge Rating: 4 Treasure: See text Alignment: Always lawful evil Advancement: 6-8 HD (Medium) Level Adjustment: — Horde, Large Large Outsider (Earth, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful) Hit Dice: 8d8+32 (68 hp) Initiative: +5 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 20 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +10 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 19 Base Attack/Grapple: +8/+19 Attack: Bite +15 melee (2d6+10/19-20) Full Attack: Bite +15 melee (2d6+10/19-20) Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Collective mind, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, telepathy 100 ft. Saves: Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +7 Abilities: Str 25, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17 Skills: Balance +3, Concentration +28, Diplomacy +29, Jump +37, Listen +25, Knowledge (the planes) +25, Search +25, Sense Motive +25, Spot +25, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, +3 on other planes), Tumble +27 Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Elemental Plane of Earth Organization: Solitary, patrol (2-8), or collective (10-1,000) Challenge Rating: 7 Treasure: See text Alignment: Always lawful evil Advancement: 9-12 HD (Large) Level Adjustment: — Horde, Huge Huge Outsider (Earth, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful) Hit Dice: 13d8+65 (123 hp) Initiative: +5 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 22 (-2 size, +1 Dex, +13 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 21 Base Attack/Grapple: +13/+30 Attack: Bite +21 melee (3d6+13/19-20) Full Attack: Bite +21 melee (3d6+13/19-20) Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Collective mind, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, telepathy 100 ft. Saves: Fort +13, Ref +9, Will +9 Abilities: Str 29, Dex 13, Con 21, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17 Skills: Balance +3, Concentration +29, Diplomacy +29, Jump +39, Listen +25, Knowledge (the planes) +25, Search +25, Sense Motive +25, Spot +25, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, +3 on other planes), Tumble +27 Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Elemental Plane of Earth Organization: Solitary, patrol (2-8), or collective (10-1,000) Challenge Rating: 10 Treasure: See text Alignment: Always lawful evil Advancement: 14-21 HD (Huge) Level Adjustment: — Horde, Alpha Huge Outsider (Earth, Evil, Extraplanar, Lawful) Hit Dice: 21d8+86 (220 hp) Initiative: +5 Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares) Armor Class: 22 (-2 size, +1 Dex, +13 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 21 Base Attack/Grapple: +21/+39 Attack: Bite +30 melee (3d6+15/19-20) Full Attack: Bite +30 melee (3d6+15/19-20) Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities Special Qualities: Collective mind, communal immortality, communal reliance, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, telepathy 100 ft. Saves: Fort +18, Ref +13, Will +13 Abilities: Str 30, Dex 13, Con 22, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 17 Skills: Balance +3, Concentration +30, Diplomacy +29, Jump +40, Listen +25, Knowledge (the planes) +25, Search +25, Sense Motive +25, Spot +25, Survival +1 (+3 following tracks, +3 on other planes), Tumble +27 Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Elemental Plane of Earth Organization: Solitary, patrol (2-8), or collective (10-1,000) Challenge Rating: 14 Treasure: See text Alignment: Always lawful evil Advancement: — Level Adjustment: — This creature resembles a golden praying mantis of unusual size. Its body language implies sentience. Hordes are collective entities consisting of up to a thousand individual members or more. Although native to the Elemental Plane of Earth, hordes gladly spread to other planes when the opportunity arises. Hordes act only in their own best interest, and consider all other life forms competition for territory and resources. In fact, hordes consider no other life forms to be intelligent, and are perfectly content to eradicate other beings if it is to the horde's benefit. Most hordes consist of about 1,000 members, with an "alpha" (the highest-Hit Dice member) of 21 Hit Dice. However, scholars believe that hordes could theoretically have limitless growth. Although the alpha is theoretically the most powerful individual in the horde, it is not the leader; the horde's mind and life force occupy all component bodies evenly. Each horde has its own name, and all component entities respond to that name. This can cause much confusion for other creatures interacting with a horde. Of course, most intelligent creatures fear and loathe hordes, for these creatures can easily overrun a region and strip it free of all plant and animal life in a short period of time. Hordes have even been known to keep "herds" of sentient creatures for future food. A horde body is 1 foot long and weighs x pounds per Hit Die. Each horde is unique in appearance, but all members of a given horde are identical. Sample appearances include golden praying mantises or black beetles with glowing red antennae. Horde entities communicate telepathically. COMBAT A horde willingly sacrifices individual members to achieve its goal, even going so far as to willingly fail saving throws to achieve strategic victories. If a horde loses 10% of its members in a single battle or other endeavor, it will attempt a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Should diplomacy break down, it will flee. If flight is not an option, a horde does not hesitate to call upon another horde for assistance. Collective Mind (Ex): A horde is a collective being sharing a communal consciousness. As a result, all horde entities within 100 miles of each other are in constant contact, able to communicate telepathically with each other within this range. If one is aware of a particular danger, they all are. If one in the group is not flat-footed, none of them are. No horde entity in the group is considered flanked unless all are. All horde entities share the same mental ability scores and use the feats and skills of the highest-HD member. Each horde entity must still meet the prereqs to use a given skill, although it uses the base attack bonus and skill ranks of the highest-HD member for such purposes. Thus, a Medium horde entity in a group led by a 21 HD horde entity can use Improved Critical (despite its base attack bonus of +7, since it uses the +21 bonus of the highest-HD member), but cannot use Awesome Blow (it does not meet the size prerequisite). The statistics for the various horde entities above assume a horde led by a 21 HD entity. For horde collectives with a highest-HD member different than 21 HD, add or remove 1 skill rank per Hit Die added or removed from greatest member. Thus, a collective led by a 16 HD entity would remove 5 ranks from each skill. Feats should also be adjusted upward or downward based on the highest-HD member. Remove feats as follows: Awesome Blow (less than 21 HD), Improved Crit (less than 18 HD), Improved Bull Rush (less than 15 HD), Great Cleave (less than 12 HD), Weapon Focus (less than 9 HD), Cleave (less than 6 HD). For collectives with greater than 21 HD leaders, add one additional feat per 3 Hit Dice thereafter (24, 27, 30, and so on). Communal Immortality (Su): In order to destroy the horde, all its members must be slain, or it can rejuvenate. So long as a single horde entity remains alive, it can create new bodies or increase its own power at a rate of 1 HD per hour until the size of the previous horde is reached. Communal Reliance (Su): Great distances may sever a member's ties to the communal consciousness of the horde. A horde entity that strays more than 100 miles from the farthest other member of its horde is stricken as per a feeblemind spell. Should the straying entity return within range, the feeblemind effect is immediately removed. An entity that remains out of contact for more than 24 hours will perish 1d10 days thereafter (no save). Since all horde entities are in constant communication with each other and are aware of this weakness, this will generally only occur if a horde entity is forcibly moved. Spell-Like Abilities: At will—detect thoughts, telekinesis (DC 18). Caster level equals Hit Dice. The save DCs are Charisma-based. Originally appeared in D&D Rules Cyclopedia (1991). Category:Outsiders